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Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Well, this is crazy. No, no. I am not saying that just because the challenge is called the Crazy Ingredient Challenge. At least, that's not the only reason. I have done cooking challenges before. But they have always been pretty straightforward. Bake sourdough crackers. Do a twist on cinnamon rolls. See? Simple. I don't have to think that much. Oh don't get me wrong, I spend hours and days agonizing over what I will do and change my mind right before I weigh the first 120 grams of flour. However, I am still working with boundaries. I am making cupcakes or pizza or a braid. Nothing like this. This is like minor league Iron Chef.

When Jen suggested it, I laughed at her. And also laughed at the fact that I would NEVER sign up for such a thing. I am not creative enough. That's just too much thinking. That sounds like work. I like simple kitchen tasks. And then I navigated to Hungry Little Girl's blog. And signed up. Yup, this is crazy.

So this month's ingredients are avocado and caramel. Hmm. What would I make? Cake. Obviously. Wait. No. It's currently illegal to turn my oven on. (Hello there, from beautiful, HOT Miami!) Never mind that I made crackers a few days ago; cake means the oven is on a bit longer. I was scrolling through my Feedly (did everyone make the switch from Google Reader to Feedly? I still miss Google Reader...) when I saw a s'mores martini and that's when it hit me - I would make a cocktail!

Caramel not pictured because, well...sometimes I forget things or in this case remember to take pic after I've used all my caramel.

It's crazy that a cocktail would be what I'd fixate on. I don't drink much and I could probably tell you every drink that I have had over the last 5 years. But I simply could not get it out of my mind. An avocado and caramel pie came pretty close to winning but daiquiri won the day.

Caramelized sugar standing in for the actual caramel. And look, there's rum. J Wray and Nephew.

You can hardly taste the avocado in this daiquiri. In fact, I suspect that were one not told that there was avocado in it, one would never be able to guess. Part of this is because the rum is STRONG. I used J Wray & Nephew's lovely white overproof rum (63% abv). Don't be like me. Use something that's 40% or less. Or be like me, it depends on your alcohol tolerance and preferences. Cheers!

P.S. Did you know that rum had calories? Whose idea was that?! Yes, yes, I know. Sugar cane. Blah blah. But do you ever think about calories when you're pouring an alcoholic beverage? I never had until now.

AVOCADO & CARAMEL DAIQUIRI

Recipe by: Kelster

Yield: 1 serving

Ingredients

6 oz avocado (by weight)

2 fluid oz white rum1 fluid oz lime juice

1 fluid oz caramel

1 cup of ice

Directions

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until ice is crushed and all ingredients are combined. Pour into a chilled glass and enjoy!

Notes

I would have liked this to be just a little sweeter since I like sweet drinks and also because the avocado is so mild. But I didn't want to add sugar or more caramel. It's refreshing as is but adjust lime juice and caramel to suit your own tastes.

Friday, August 16, 2013

I have been trying to think of a new name for my blog for a long time. But what name would accurately reflect me and what I wanted to present to the public in this space? Honestly, I am not quite sure that I have found the answer yet but with a deadline looming for a new food challenge, I needed to make a quick decision.

So, here it is: Passion Kneaded.

After hurriedly setting up an email address and this blog URL last night (I still need to purchase a dedicated site), I thought about just what the name meant. There's the obvious dough reference. I bake a loaf of bread each week - usually sourdough (more on that later). If you ever told me three years ago that I would be kneading dough every week, I would certainly have laughed at you.

Pretzel Bread

However, it's been more than two years since I have purchased a loaf of bread and I would not have it any other way. The thing is though, I am currently in a bread rut. I haven't made something "different" in a long time and honestly, I need to before I lose that..wait for it... passion.

So that takes us to passion. What's my passion? What am I passionate about? I have been mulling this over for a few weeks and I can't seem to find an acceptable answer. If you were to assume at this point that I am currently experiencing an existential crisis, you would be correct. So, I need passion. I need to find myself. I need to find the things that will make me excited to get up and face each day. I suspect it may lie within a bag of flour or maybe within a bowl of creamed butter and sugar. But we will see won't we? One thing I do
know is that whatever it is, I will need to work at it, mold it, knead it.